Problems Are Not Issues!

Although this is not a uniquely BBC problem, BBC is often guilty of causing problems with “issue.” Listening to the BBC coverage of the recent escape from the rocket that had a booster failure, the announcer on the video says calmly that there has been a booster “issue.” Has the word problem finally been outlawed in favor of the euphemism issue?

I am sure that there are numerous people reading this (if there are indeed numerous people reading this) who grew up in the world after the senseless transition from problem to issue afflicted the English language as it is spoken and written by otherwise intelligent people.

Knock it off, folks. A problem is a problem. The next step after calling problems issues is claiming that bugs are features. Calling a problem an issue might work for a call center operator in Mumbai, but for more sensible people there is no reason to call a problem anything other than a problem.